


You Met Me in the Fire

by Independence1776



Series: Reckless [1]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Thor (Movies)
Genre: Multi, Second Chances, Shapeshifting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-09
Updated: 2017-07-09
Packaged: 2018-11-22 09:03:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,352
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11376966
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Independence1776/pseuds/Independence1776
Summary: Natasha and Clint find an injured wolf at the beginning of a mission. Things take a slight turn for the odd.





	You Met Me in the Fire

**Author's Note:**

  * For [wnnbdarklord](https://archiveofourown.org/users/wnnbdarklord/gifts).



> Thank you to L and LB for brainstorming and LL for the beta.
> 
> The title comes from Martina McBride’s “Reckless,” which rather fits these three, at least in this story.

“Aww, shit, Natasha,” Clint said when the clearing where they’d landed the quinjet was barely out of sight.

Natasha turned to look at him and then where he pointed. A trail of blood leading to a black wolf, lying on its side with its head raised, its left back leg coated with blood. The longer she looked at it, the odder the wolf became. Its snout was a hair too thin for the gray wolves that lived in the area while its legs were thicker. Even the pale curve on its chest was a shape not normally found on wolves. But the thing that made the hairs on her neck rise was that it stared calmly at them with bright green eyes.

This was not an ordinary wolf.

“Clint, we can call in an injured wolf to Michigan’s Department of Natural Resources when we’re done with the mission,” she said. Despite the differences in snouts, she would bet that its teeth and jaw were still dangerous.

Clint looked at her. “I want to remove the bullet--”

The wolf nodded. Clint’s eyes widened and Natasha’s hand slipped to her gun. Slight oddities in form were one thing; understanding English was another entirely.

“Okay,” Clint said. “We’ll do that. You stay put. One of us will get the first aid kit from the plane.”

“I’ll do it.” At the very least, she needed to make a report about this, even though she wouldn’t risk sending it until after the mission’s completion. Just in case the wolf turned on them.

She had to duck under the camouflage before opening the ramp and retrieving the kit, plus a headlamp for Clint. She spent a bare minute typing into the console “found odd, injured wolf; removing bullet from its leg before heading out” and left the plane without closing the ramp. If it turned out well, she’d need to put the kit back. If not, well, they’d handle that, too.

To her surprise, the wolf held its leg still as Clint used tweezers to retrieve the bullet. It thrashed its head a couple of times and whimpered once, but when the bullet was out, it whipped its head around when Clint reached for the threaded suture needle Natasha held out to him. They both froze. Natasha frowned when the wolf scrambled to its feet, though it hardly put any weight on the injured leg, and shook itself. Natasha lowered the hand holding the needle while Clint said, “If you want it to heal, it needs sutures.”

The wolf’s mouth dropped in what was unmistakably a grin and then the wolf _shifted_. It was the work of only a couple of seconds before a tall, attractive, black-haired man stood before them wearing leather armor, complete a gold curve on the chest piece. There was no sign his leg had been shot. “I thank you for assisting me. As you can see, I do not require these sutures.”

She stood after dropping the needle into the kit, though Clint remained kneeling to wash off his hands. Something about his armor… She kept her expression steady when she realized where she’d seen similar styles: in surveillance photographs from Puente Antiguo. She wouldn’t need to remind Clint, either; it had barely been a month since the Incident.

“Shapeshifter or werewolf?” Clint said before she could speak.

The man laughed. “Shapeshifter. Werewolves don’t exist.”

Natasha thought she could append a “not on this world” to that statement. “This is the middle of nowhere. Why are you out here?”

He shrugged. “I have no better place to be. I was shot because I was too near that compound just ahead.” Natasha tilted her head. “It smelled odd. Odder than anything else on this realm.”

Clint straightened, just a little. “What’s your name?”

“Loki.”

Clint nodded, though he didn’t go for his bow. Both of them knew it would be pointless-- and he hadn’t threatened them yet. “I know you heard our names. So… what now?”

Loki shrugged. “I expect we’ll continue on together. I do not intend to let those who shot me live. And I suspect you have your own business at the compound.”

A shiver went down Natasha’s spine. “Killing people is rather antithetical to it. We’re sneaking in.”

“I can ensure that no one will see or hear you, either through physical or electronic means.”

Clint said, drying his hands off and standing, “That would neat. But are you able to? You lost a lot of blood.”

Loki sharply gestured with a hand. “That is of no matter.”

“You should at least have some water and food. We’ll go back to the plane, get you something. We need to put the kit back anyway.”

“That is agreeable.”

While Clint put the kit and headlamp away and Loki sat down on one of the seats, not attempting to hide his curiosity, Natasha typed out an addendum to the report: “wolf = shapeshifted Loki Odinson. Working with him to enter compound.” And sent it to Coulson. This was too important to risk not doing so, even with the minute chance the lab would notice the communication.

“Ready?” she asked when she turned around.

Clint nodded and glanced at Loki. “Are you capable of walking a couple of miles?”

“My leg is no longer injured. Regardless, I can teleport us there. Unless you’d rather hike?”

Clint and Natasha looked at each other. Natasha said, “You dole out these tidbits of your abilities. We need to know what else you’re capable of before we head inside or it could compromise our mission.”

Loki sighed and leaned his head against one of the parachute packs. “It’s magic. The question is more appropriately, ‘What am I not capable of?’” He shook his head. “I will follow your lead. I’m rather more curious about _why_ they shot me given I was a wolf at the time; revenge can wait.” Natasha kept her face neutral, but Clint’s eyebrows rose. “What?”

Clint shook his head and left the plane. Loki followed him and Natasha a touch more slowly. If shapeshifting healed the wound, could it have also pushed out the bullet? Or would it merely have stayed in place as Loki’s flesh shifted around it? But her main concern was keeping him focused on SHIELD’s mission, not his own.

When she came into the clearing, the sun was had risen, no longer leaving them to navigate the forest in predawn light. They were running behind schedule. She turned to Loki and said, “Teleport us.”

He smiled a little. “This may prove unpleasant.”

He grasped their shoulders and then suddenly they weren’t in the clearing next to the camouflaged quinjet. Her head spun momentarily, though Clint had to put his between his knees. Loki waited patiently for them, seemingly unaffected. She suspected he was simply used to it. But more importantly, he’d brought them within the compound itself: in the wide yard between the barbed wire deer fence and the cluster of brick buildings.

She scanned the grounds, noting several guards who were paying them no mind. “You’re hiding us already?”

“It is a simple matter. Where do you need to go?”

“The center building. I need to download some information.”

“Is that not possible over the Internet?”

She shook her head. “Not for this.” There was no point in explaining to him the specifics of the mission or why there was a computer that had no connections to the Internet whatsoever.

Clint removed the bow from his back. “I’ll keep an eye out for anyone who might stumble into us. Loki, you just worry about the shield. Nat has the rest covered.”

They slowly moved through the compound, stopping several times to let people by them, until they reached the small room in the middle of the building. Natasha put her finger on the biometric key and unlocked the door-- simple when she’d hacked the security protocols on the flight over and inserted her information; she’d erase it when they were on their way back to the Triskelion.

The room itself was colder than the hallway, but the computer console she needed was directly across from the door. She sat down in the leather office chair, ignoring the soft conversation about how Clint and Loki were dividing the watch duties, and set to hacking the computer and downloading the information about the weapons the group was trying to create.

She read what she could while the information downloaded onto the flash drive, but one thing in particular caught her attention. “Loki, how many aliens are on Earth?”

She heard a soft intake of breath. “I cannot begin to imagine how you think I believe in that ridiculous concept.”

Natasha spun in her chair and met his eyes. “We know you’re from Asgard. Specifically, we know you sent the Destroyer to Puente Antiguo. Right now, that’s irrelevant. I need to know the answer to my question.”

Loki stared at her with a wrinkled forehead. “You know I tried to kill Thor and yet you’re talking to me?”

“It’s the attack on the town we actually care about,” Clint said, his fingers clenched around his bow, “not Asgard’s internal problems.”

Loki looked even more confused and then visibly collected himself. “If there are other aliens here, I don’t know of them. The last Convergence was nearly five thousand years ago; any non-Midgardian species would have either died out or integrated into the population.” He crossed the room in three strides and leaned over Natasha’s shoulder. He read the three paragraph file and shook his head. “They took no blood from me. Any blood from my wound would have sunk into the ground. I know how to hide a trail.”

“What’s a Convergence,” Clint said, still keeping an eye on the hallway.

“A mystical meeting of the Nine Realms. The next one is just a couple of years away.”

“Good to know,” Natasha said neutrally. She flagged the document in the flash drive anyway. Let the analysts figure it out; she didn’t have the time. She removed the drive and erased all signs she’s accessed the system from the computer. “Let’s go.”

They snuck out the way they came in, though it was more difficult than it had before people showed up to work for the day. Once outside, she placed a hand on Loki’s forearm and tilted her head toward a group of guards talking at the corner of the building.

“You shot a _wolf_ last night?”

“Yeah, it was poking around,” the short, bald man said to the taller blond one. “I didn’t want it coming inside.”

“Dude, deer can’t get over that fence. Dumbass. You can’t shoot wolves here. You want to get us in trouble with the state?” the other short guard said.

Loki grinned ferally. He looked down at her, though. “Revenge can wait until you are safely away.”

She raised her eyebrows and Loki teleported the three of them back to the quinjet. “Do you still intend to kill him?”

Loki shrugged. “Killing him would satisfy my bloodlust. But there may be simpler ways. An anonymous tip to that state department, perhaps? And then a curse to ensure he was the worst luck.”

“You can do that?” Clint said with a disturbed look on his face.

Loki frowned. “Yes.”

“Will it hurt other people?”

Loki blinked. “I… do not know. I suppose it may.” He stared at Clint then. “I knew I’d seen you before. You were at the compound with Mjolnir.” He hesitated. “You were at Puente Antiguo.”

“I saw the aftermath. They’re still rebuilding. Loki, some of those shops may never reopen. You ruined people’s lives. Why did you attack?”

Loki glanced away. “It made sense at the time.”

“Actions like that do,” Natasha said, crossing her arms. “We know one side of the story, what the Warriors Three and Lady Sif told us. We’d like yours.”

He looked back at her, surprise and shock swiftly hidden behind a blank mask. “I was king; Thor was banished. They came there to bring him home to put him on the throne. I needed to stop him.”

“So why not just go after Thor? Why the town?”

Loki said simply, “I’m a monster.”

“I set a hospital on fire, Loki. You’re not the only monster here.” Natasha waited a brief second. “Being a monster isn’t a reason.”

“That’s not--” Loki looked at Clint. “You still work with her? You still _like_ her?”

“One incident doesn’t define a person, Loki. I gave her a second chance; she took it.”

He glanced between the two of them and then abruptly said, “I thank you for your previous assistance. Fare well.”

He vanished without a sound. Clint snorted. “Wanna bet he’d say something like, ‘Only amateurs make noise?’”

Natasha smiled. “I won’t take that bet. Come on, let’s get back to DC.”

 

 

It was another two weeks before things calmed down. Everyone from Secretary Pierce and Director Fury on down wanted an explanation of why they chose to work with Loki rather than bring him in. No one was truly happy with their explanation-- it wasn’t like they could have _stopped_ him from either tagging along or ruining their mission-- but Fury seemed to understand. He simply told them to be careful. They would be; there was ample evidence of just how dangerous Loki could be.

The day they were finally free of the debriefings, they ordered Chinese from the restaurant down the block to celebrate, which Clint went to pick up. When the door opened, Natasha looked over from setting the table. Clint put the containers on the table and sat down. “What do you think Loki’s doing?”

Natasha served herself some rice. “I don’t know. SHIELD is moving forward with the investigation, though they ruled it wasn’t another extraterrestrial in that document.”

“Thankfully.” He looked up. “We didn’t need three of them running around. Though I’d wonder if the next one would be less attractive.”

Loki… rather fit her type. She would have loved to seen him fight rather than sneak around-- though not against them. “You would think aliens would look a little more so.”

“Would you sleep with him?”

He was dangerous, unstable, and attractive. He was inclined to listen to her, though whether that’s because he needed to work with them for the best result or an actual preference was something she’d need to spend more time with him to learn. “For a night, yes. I’m not sure a relationship would work out.”

“Still would be fun to try, wouldn’t it?” Clint said with a grin. “Though I doubt we’ll see him again.”

Natasha shrugged a shoulder. “He’ll come back. We intrigued him too much.” She was not opposed to a relationship, even with someone most of SHIELD wanted to shoot on sight. She didn’t think Loki wanted to admit it, but he was looking for somewhere to belong.

So it was of no surprise to her that Loki trailed Clint into the apartment the next Saturday afternoon. Clint jerked his thumb over his shoulder and said, “Look who followed me home.”

Natasha uncurled from the couch and put her book on the end table. “Do you want anything to eat or drink?”

“Water would suffice,” Loki said softly, glancing around the room. He sat down on the other end of the vacated couch. He wore a tailored black suit and his hair was longer, flipped out a little at the ends. It fit him to the point she had to remind herself that Loki would undoubtedly not be interested in sleeping with them.

She poured him a glass of water from the pitcher in the refrigerator and handed it to him before curling back up on the couch. A show of her vulnerability and apparent ease of him being there would go a long way to helping him speak whatever was on his mind.

He drank some and then stared into the glass. “I fell to Earth after a fight with Thor. I had no place else to go, no place that would want me, so I ran. I suppose I would have kept running had I not been shot. But you said things that I couldn’t ignore. You treated me not as a monster, despite knowing what I had done to your people, but as an ally. I wish to thank you for that.

“I researched you. Both of you.” He met Natasha’s eyes then. “I wanted to understand.”

“You still don’t,” she said. “You can’t figure out how to live when the guilt is crushing you.” He looked away again, out of the window this time. The apartment across the street was nothing interesting, so she waited until he glanced back at her. “You don’t. You have to acknowledge it and work through it. Guilt can hold you back as much as anything else. You have to discover yourself as you are now, not compare yourself to who you were then.”

He looked away again. Clint said, “It helps to have people who care.”

Loki met Clint’s eyes. “I cannot return to Asgard. I will drown there.”

“Then stay here. We have a spare bedroom.”

Loki put down the glass of water on a coaster on the end table and leaned forward a little. “You have heart.”

Clint shrugged. “Natasha saved herself. I just held out the hand.”

Loki half-smiled. “There are not many people in the universe like you, Clint.” He glanced at Natasha. “Like either of you.” He kept Natasha’s eyes. “If you would not mind a guest, Natasha?”

She had offered him a drink and food for a reason. “I would be honored.”

Loki relaxed against the cushion, then, though he didn’t pick up his glass. She suspected he had thought they would reject him. “What would you have me do?”

Natasha said, “Come into SHIELD with us. Not as an employee; I’m not going to shove that on you.” Clint chuckled, so Loki only clenched his jaw rather than explode despite the sudden tension in his body. “I guarantee your safety: you will not be imprisoned. But you do need to explain what happened to more than just Clint and me.”

Loki closed his eyes briefly and then nodded. “Agreed.” 

 

 

“You know,” Loki said as he unwound the gauze bandage around Natasha’s left bicep, “this seems familiar.”

Clint snorted and joined them at the kitchen table, which was covered with Loki’s reading material of the day, this time three novels, two nonfiction books about World War II, and an open cookbook. “It’s knife wound, not a bullet.”

“That doesn’t matter,” Loki shot back. “Both were caused by excess curiosity.” He looked at Natasha. “What _did_ happen with that organization? It’s been three months and neither of you have said anything.”

Natasha smiled at the too-casual tone in his voice. “We just heard: after everyone was arrested for trying to make a combined biological-chemical weapon, the compound mysteriously burned down, as did the house of one of the guards. Neither the local arson unit nor SHIELD can figure out either.”

Loki didn’t bother to hide his smile as he placed his hand against her wound. The stitches came out with an odd tugging sensation and then her armed warmed briefly. When he removed his hand, the wound was healed without even a scar.

“Thank you.”

He looked at her, almost hesitant. Natasha glanced at Clint and then leaned over to kiss Loki gently on the lips. His eyes widened in surprise and then he kissed her back. When they broke apart, he licked his lips. “I…”

“Where’s mine?” Clint said.

Loki looked at him, a thin ring of green around wide pupils. “Both of you?” he whispered and stood, sending the chair crashing backwards to the floor. He grabbed Clint’s T-shirt and pulled him into a somewhat more vicious kiss. Natasha stood more sedately and picked up the chair. She eyed them both after they pulled away from each other, hair mussed and noticeable bulges in their pants. “Shall we take this to the bedroom?”

Clint nodded. Loki grinned.

**Author's Note:**

> There will be a sequel in Loki’s POV of the three month gap up by the end of the month.


End file.
